Salud. Dignidad. Justicia.

Sterilization in California Prisons

The National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health has long defined reproductive healthcare, autonomy, and decision-making as human rights. Nowhere is the need for a human rights framing of reproductive issues more acute than in the case of the California prison system. Last month, the Center for Investigative Reporting revealed that, between 2006 and 2010, doctors sterilized nearly 150 female inmates in California prisons without anything remotely resembling informed consent. State documents further divulge that doctors under contract with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation may have completed up to 250 tubal ligations since the 1990s. Many former inmates are coming forward as having felt ill-informed regarding and coerced into the procedure. This case reminds us that absolutely everyone, incarcerated or not, deserves dignity in reproductive decisions.